Tuesday on www.uschess.org, Sam Shankland, student at Brandeis University in Waltham, was named the 27th recipient of the Frank P. Samford, Jr. Chess Fellowship ($42,000 for 2013-14, renewable for a second year), beginning July 1, 2013.
While Shankland is already a grandmaster, a native of California and a very serious competitor, he now has a chance at his dream to spend one or two years studying chess and playing the top competitors in the world (as he told us in January) one game per day in top-level events.
New England has seen at least four native Samford winners, Patrick Wolff (then of Belmont) in 1989, Ilya Gurevich (Worcester resident) in 1991, Eugene Perelshteyn of Swampscott in 2001 and Josh Friedel (then of New Hampshire) in 2007. Many of the top U.S. players today are former Samford recipients, though time will tell if any will become world champion, one of the program goals.
Speaking of world titles, the 2013 Candidates tournament, with eight of the strongest players (no Americans) in the world, is going on now through April 1 in London. As of round six, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian were in front with 4.5 (three wins and three draws), and the second half (round 8) begins today. There is all kinds of coverage at www.chessbase.com and numerous top analysts looking at every move. There were only eight wins in the first 24 games of the eight-player double round robin.
Closer to home, the Game /25 Quads Wednesday at Fitchburg State University were won by Mike Lally of Leverett, Gary Brassard of Leominster, Dave Thomas and Francis Scanlon, both of Fitchburg, and Don Briggs of Lunenburg. The Siiskonen Memorial begins Wednesday; details at www.wachusettchess.org.
In Sturbridge and the 165-player Eastern Class Championships, Mikheil Kekelidze of New York and Alexander Fishbein of New Jersey tied for first at 4-1. Andrew Liu of Westboro had another “master” performance in the Open group. Results of the six lower sections are at www.easternclass.com.
In New Haven, Conn., the seven-section state championships on March 9 drew 182 players, with just 25 players in the open and class, with Ian Harris sweeping the state championship title, 4-0. More than 100 of the players were in Grade 6 and younger, with 20 in their first rated event. Crosstable can be found at www.uschess.org, event number 201303091282 under clubs and tournaments.
Upcoming events can be found at www.masschess.org.
Source: http://www.telegram.com
Great column!